Appropriation in New Media Observed through DJ Earworm

The term “appropriation” immediately brings to mind the concept of cultural appropriation, in which one demographic adopts aspects of another culture, usually in negative ways, such as Native American headdresses being worn at music concerts to look “cool”. However, in the context of the Jenkins (2009) article, it refers to using bits and pieces from an already existing work and developing something new and meaningful. The first thing that springs to mind for me when reading Jenkins’ description is DJ Earworm (real name Jordan Roseman).

DJ Earworm first demonstrated the skill of appropriation in 2007 when he released “United State of Pop” which was a mash-up of the top 25 songs of the year, according to the Billboard’s Year-End Top 100. He uses samples from each of the song, whether it’s the overarching beat or the hook or the chorus. He layers the songs over each other in such a way that they blend and create a new song (Lipschutz, 2011).

In 2009, he blew up with that year’s United States of Pop, with everyone around the world enjoying his music (Lipschutz, 2011). As a DJ, his job is appropriation, if he did not possess that skill, then he would be unable to do his job to the best of his abilities.

Although a big aspect of appropriation is knowing when it is appropriate to take samples, and when it is not. With DJ Earworm, he does samples in a respectful way that honours the original artists, and, in a way, provides new insight into the music itself. It is also important to be aware of copyright laws and trying not to infringe upon them. Earworm explains how he avoids this because there is an amendment to copyright laws in that original works can be used under the “fair use” policy (Hein, 2014). This essentially states that a person can use copyrighted work if they have a good enough reason, which helps mash-up artists avoid anything more than a cease and desist letter.

I believe that appropriation is an important new media skill because it creates a new creative outlet for many people and produces original work that feels familiar to the audience.

Below is this year's installment in the United State of Pop series produced by DJ Earworm, in case anyone wants to give it a listen. Though this year he did the top 50 songs, rather than the top 25.

Work Cited

Hein, E. (2014, December 26). DJ Earworm on the art of the mashup. Retrieved 6 December 2015

Jenkins, H (et al). (2009) "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century". The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lipschutz, J. (2011, January 3). DJ Earworm: Pop Music Had ‘More Energy’ in 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2015.

Roseman, J. (2015, December 2). DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2015 (50 Shades of Pop) [Viedo file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfFEhd7mk7c.